Doyel: Moves by Pacers at NBA trade deadline leaves clear winner: Bennedict Mathurin
INDIANAPOLIS – This is why you don’t write about Pacers President Kevin Pritchard’s bizarre Buddy Hield trade before the NBA draft deadline has arrived. It's why I didn’t even think about starting to write this story, yes the one you’re reading now, when news broke Thursday at 10:24 a.m. that the Pacers had made a head-scratcher of a move: Serviceable shooting guard Buddy Hield to Philadelphia for a pair of old sneakers (Marcus Morris) and freakin’ Furkan Korkmaz.
Because something else had to be coming. Another move, another announcement, something. No way does Kevin Pritchard, who hasn’t lost a trade since replacing Larry Bird in 2017, send a double-digit scorer still capable of the occasional offensive explosion to an Eastern Conference competitor for 34-year-old Marcus Morris (6.7 ppg in seven games this season), Furkan Korkmaz (age 26; 2.5 ppg) and three second-round picks.
A move like that? Has to be just the first shoe to drop. Sure enough, the second shoe dropped at 2:45 – 15 minutes before the 3 p.m. EST deadline – and it wasn’t just one shoe, but a whole bag of ‘em. Well, it was Marcus Morris that dropped, the Pacers drop-kicking him to San Antonio, along with one of those second-round picks acquired from the 76ers, for old friend Doug McDermott. The Pacers then used another of those second-round picks to trade for Cory Joseph (2.4 ppg) from Golden State but then waived him. Then waived Korkmaz.
Now that it’s all said and done, we can look at the results for the Pacers:
Gone: Buddy Hield
Here: Doug McDermott, a future second-rounder and some cash.
Still looks kind of weird, doesn’t it?
Insider Dustin Dopirak: Are Pacers better after trading Buddy Hield?
Kevin Pritchard has earned benefit of doubt
Here’s the thing about the benefit of the doubt: Either you’ve earned it, or you have not.
Not to pick on the guy, because he or his wife let me know every time I do this, but by 2015 former Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson had squandered the benefit of the doubt he’d earned with that 2012 NFL Draft class featuring Andrew Luck, Coby Fleener and T.Y. Hilton. So, when in 2015 he used his first three picks on Phillip Dorsett, D’Joun Smith and Henry Anderson – swear to you, I don’t recognize the name D’Joun Smith – I wrote a story that night under the following headline:
I don’t know what Ryan Grigson is doing
What followed in my story was mass confusion, with the unmistakable undertone of disrespect.
We could put a similar headline on this story – I don’t know what Kevin Pritchard is doing – and that would be true. But what follows will not be undertones of disrespect, because Pritchard has earned the benefit of the doubt. He’s really, really good at this.
Grigson? Bless his heart, I think he got lucky in 2012. Andrew Luck was a no-brainer, and the rest of that class was too good to have been chosen with any legitimate insight, given the drafter’s penchant for a Bjorn Werner here, a T.J. Green there, a Trent Richardson anywhere.
Pritchard wins trades, or at least holds his own when the deck is stacked against him. Paul George and Victor Oladipo very publicly wanted out, undercutting Pritchard’s leverage, but he turned George into two future All-Stars, Oladipo and Sabonis, and later turned Oladipo into a healthier, more productive, less selfish player at the same position (Caris LeVert).
And then he turned Sabonis into Tyrese Haliburton (and Hield).
Pritchard has made other trades along the way, outright rip-offs of Toronto for Joseph in 2018, and Phoenix for T.J. Warren in 2019 and Jalen Smith in 2022. Pritchard didn’t exactly “rob” Toronto of Pascal Siakam in January for the same reason the 76ers didn’t “rob” the Pacers of Hield – both were on expiring contracts, with no chance of returning next season. The Raptors had to get something for Siakam, and if Bruce Brown and some spare change was the best they could do, bully for them.
But the Pacers have an absolute star in Siakam, and they know he wants to be here long term.
The 76ers have an aging shooting guard in Buddy Hield. Maybe he wants to be in Philly long term, maybe he doesn’t. Maybe – he turns 32 this year, with a noticeable drop-off in points per 36 minutes (career 19.6 ppg; 16.8 this season) and 3-point accuracy (was 40.2%, is 38.4%) – it doesn’t matter.
So we’re left to wonder, as folks in Toronto must be wondering after losing Siakam for Brown and pocket lint: Is this the best the Pacers could do for Buddy Hield?
Answer: Obviously, yes. Which means the NBA community has spoken about Buddy Hield’s value, and it sounds an awful lot like this:
Nope.
Winner of Buddy Hield trade: Bennedict Mathurin
So what did Pritchard acquire, ultimately? A premium shooter in McDermott – 76-for-173 from distance this season (43.9%) in 15.2 minutes per game – plus another second-round draft pick, or “powder” as the gun-slingin’ Pritchard likes to call his assets. Either way, the Pacers’ most significant development at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline involves a player who started and ended the day on roster:
Bennedict Mathurin.
This doesn’t just free up more minutes for the 6-6 Mathurin, a second-year wing whose scoring is down from his rookie season (16.7 ppg to 14.6 ppg) but whose efficiency is way up. His shooting accuracy has increased across the board, in 3-pointers (32.3% last season; 37.6% now), 2-pointers (48.8% to 49.7%) and even free throws (82.8% to 83.2%). Mathurin also is creating more and turning it over less. He’s 21, and still ascending.
Mathurin had replaced Hield in the starting lineup, but Hield’s stature and locker room sway demanded he get minutes (25.7 per game). Now we’ll see Mathurin’s minutes climb from his current average (25.8 per game, down from 28.5 last season).
More than free up Mathurin’s minutes, it frees up Mathurin. Make sense? He no longer has Hield looking over his shoulder. Whether that was happening literally or merely metaphorically, it was happening – and now it’s not. Whatever Mathurin has to his game, we’re about to find out because he’ll get the minutes and peace of mind of a true starting shooting guard in the NBA.
You excited to see what that looks like? Me too. I think it’s time for me to wrap up this story, because the longer it goes, the more I’m thinking Kevin Pritchard just had himself another banner day. Even if I’m still not exactly sure what he just did.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Pacers' Buddy Hield trade to 76ers: Who won? Bennedict Mathurin
